Evaluating systems convening work using Ripple Effect Mapping: the Hackney experience

In September 2022 Hackney Council hired two systems conveners to work across boundaries build relationships, break down silos, and enable new opportunities to flourish. By listening without an agenda they sought to remove the blockages that leave many people stuck in the system.

But a novel form of work requires a novel form of evaluation, if its complex and relational impacts are to be well understood, rather than obscured. For this, Hackney turned to Ripple Effect Mapping, a participatory evaluation method that visually illustrates the interconnected impacts of a project or programme over time. It does this by mapping the journey of an initiative and the stories surrounding it.

The pioneering work in Hackney took inspiration from the book Systems Convening – a crucial form of leadership for the 21st century, which includes case studies from a range of sectors, including a number of Q Community Systems Conveners in healthcare.

This all comes at a time when the importance of the emerging shift towards relational and Systems Convening style approaches is becoming more evident – party as a result of the estimated savings of £37bn that could be made, as current siloed/non-relational approaches have been found to build up so much waste/’failure demand’ across public services.

Speakers from Hackney teams: Jenny Zienau, Charles Clark, Hannah Addison-Kay and Abby Hauser.